A man on a motorbike drove up to a crowd watching a wrestling match in an Afghan border town Monday, killing 20 people and wounding at least 30 others, the deadliest in a recent spate of attacks. The attack came hours after a bomb hit a convoy of Afghan army trucks loaded with troops in the southern city of Kandahar, killing four people and wounding 16. The man on the motorbike detonated explosives strapped to his body near a crowd of about 100 people watching a wrestling match at a fair in Spinboldak, a key crossing point into southern Pakistan, said Kandahar provincial Gov. Asadullah Khalid. "The wrestling match was about to end when the explosion occurred," Khalid said. He said that 20 people were killed, as well as the attacker, and more than 20 were wounded, at least five seriously. ... http://www.cbsnews.com

A helicopter crashed north of Baghdad Monday, but the status of the two-man crew wasn't immediately known, and a car bomb detonated next to a police convoy and killed six people. Police and hospital officials said the bomb killed a six-year-old child and five police officers in Muqdadiya, about 56 miles north of the capital. Najim Abid, a medic at Muqdadiya general hospital, said the blast which also injured sixteen civilians and three policemen. It was not immediately known what caused the helicopter to crash around 8:20 a.m., and the military didn't immediately release any additional information. Among the helicopters used by the Army that have a two-person crew are the AH-64 Apache and the OH-58 Kiowa reconnaissance. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/24/iraq/main541815.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=World_541815

Economic worries have decreased over the last six months as the American public has shifted its concern more to the war in Iraq and problems faced by political leaders, AP-Ipsos polling found.The economy has been showing signs of strength in recent months. But the violence in Iraq has continued, before and after the latest round of elections in mid-December. And high-profile politicians in this country have been ensnared by scandal.When people were asked in an open-ended question to name the nation’s top problem, 25 percent named war, close to the level in October, but up from 19 percent in July. Within the war responses, 15 percentage points were specifically tied to Iraq, and 9 percentage points to wars and unrest worldwide. ...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10875391/from/RSS/

About 2,000 people gathered in the main square of Mongolia's capital on Mon, demanding their president resign. The Mongolian United Movement, an alliance of three civic movements that have been calling for political reform in this vast nation, organized the protest. "Dawn has broken in Mongolia. We are getting poorer everyday and corrupt officials are getting richer. Now is the time to take action," a leaflet distributed by the rally organizers said. The crowd cheered when protest leaders called for the resignation of President Nambaryn Enkhbayar, calling him "the father of corruption." On Sunday, Mongolia's biggest political party appealed to other parties to help it form a new government. The country has been thrown into political turmoil since the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party withdrew from the ruling coalition last week. The party says Elbegdorj, a former democracy activist, has not done enough to fight corruption and poverty in this former Soviet satellite...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1509505&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Israel yielded to American pressure yesterday and agreed to let East Jerusalem Arabs vote in the Palestinian parliamentary elections on 25 January. But ministers barred Hamas from campaigning in the disputed city. Within hours, police arrested Sheikh Mohammed Abu Tir, the number two man on the Hamas list, and two other candidates when they tried to hold a press conference near the al-Aqsa mosque compound. Two organisers were also detained.Earlier, Sheikh Abu Tir, a graduate of Israeli prisons with a vivid spade of a dyed red beard, claimed in an interview with the Israeli daily Ha'aretz that Hamas's participation in the elections represented a major shift to democratic politics.Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, had threatened to postpone the elections if Jerusalem Arabs were not allowed to vote....http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article338841.ece

German Chancellor Angela Merkel goes to Moscow today to meet with President Vladimir Putin, on a visit that may signal a cooling of the close ties the Russian leader enjoyed with her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder. Christian Democrat Merkel, who met President George W. Bush in Washington three days ago, plans only a six-hour stay for her first official visit to the Russian capital. It's a strictly business trip, contrasting with the regular meetings between Schroeder and Putin that included stays at each other's homes. Schroeder, a Social Democrat, called that relationship a ``strategic partnership.'' By contrast, ``the distrust may be mutual'' between Merkel and Putin, said Hannes Adomeit, an analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin, in an interview. ``Democracy for Putin is a case of taking one step forward and two back. This is deeply troubling'' to the new government. ...http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=agyEgvR_nviM&refer=home